In a conventional printer device, a stepping motor is used as a conveyance motor of a sheet (image receiving medium). In such a printer device, in order to reduce power consumption, an electric power supplied to the conveyance motor and a driving circuit thereof is stopped in a standby mode in which a printing operation is not performed.
In the printer device using the stepping motor as the conveyance motor, a phase shift between an electrical angle and a mechanical angle may occur when the printer device returns from a standby state. Therefore, when returning from the standby state, a process is needed to match phases of the electrical angle and the mechanical angle of the stepping motor. For example, it is known to perform, when the power supply is turned on and a phase shift occurs, phase matching by applying a driving pulse of one pulse or more and holding a phase signal for a predetermined period of time after the stepping motor is energized for a predetermined period of time.
However, in the conventional technology described above, since the stepping motor is driven when the phase matching is performed, the sheet is unintentionally conveyed. Therefore, after the stepping motor is driven for the phase matching, an extra process such as a reverse rotation driving is needed, which is inefficient.